Junior Bushcraft Course 2020

More construction

Our family group lucked in to the most perfect weather to go bush as Wellington’s run of perfect weather weekends continued in March for the Bushcraft 1.0 lead by the inimitable Bazza C, a super-organised, patient, knowledgeable guide.  Our task was to i) pack, ii) get to the designated meeting point at iii) a particular … Read more

City to Sea and Southern Walkway

City to Sea and Southern Walkway The City to Sea walkway is a fun mix of urban and trail walking with great views of Wellington and even the South Island on a good day. I’d finally gotten around to doing the walk during lockdown and enjoyed it so much that when the call went out … Read more

A Tale of Two Snowcaves (and a Lasagne)

Dawn overlooking Crater Lake from Dome at Mt Ruapehu

“And this is my snow saw,” said Nick, as he removed the gleaming blade from its holster. A strangely curved, unwieldy and yet hugely useful device for creating a snow cave, as I would find out later that weekend. Led by Nick H, we were a band of five who had gamely signed up for … Read more

Baring Head Conservation Trip

Aerial view of beach at Baring Head

A club trip with a Saturday 9am start feels a bit decadent.  Grabbing some extra large almond croissants on the way to the meeting point, more so.  Even better though is the cause we are off to support – helping the Friends of Baring Head Trust in their work to restore the natural habit around … Read more

Breaking Free of Lockdown

Gollans Stream

When Prime Minister Jacinda Adern announced the country’s move to Level 2 effective 14 May 2020, I was poised over my laptop to organize a trip. I had very much been missing my tramping outings during lockdown. I sent out a desperate plea to a handful of recent tramping companions to come on a day … Read more

Zealandia Boundary Fence

Zealandia

We met at 8 am by the carpark opposite 31 Waiapu Road. Maj-Britt suggested an early start to avoid any overcrowding on the trail. Also, the weather forecast was not great and we hoped to get around the loop before the bad weather arrived. As it turned out we were only three so it was … Read more

FMC Regional Leadership Course

FMC Leadership

In early March WTMC got together with the Tararua Tramping Club to run a leadership course in the Orongorongo Valley. Although the WTMC runs its own leadership course each year, the two clubs were encouraged to run a joint course through an initiative from FMC to get clubs in a region to pool resources and … Read more

Daphne Hut

Daphne Hut

After an eventful Friday night camping which combined fire warning sirens and some local dance music playing at 4-5 am—both of which I managed to sleep through—things were going pretty awesomely on my first trip with the club. We were dropped off at the Daphne Hut car park and we picked up the trail behind … Read more

Alice Nash Memorial Heritage Lodge, Ruahine Range

Six left from the railway station at 8 am on Saturday morning. After a mid-morning stop at the Church Café at Sanson—the hot chocolates (two) impressed—we turned off toward Feilding and drove via Apiti to the Petersons Road end where Malcolm was waiting in the car park to join us. I enjoyed the drive into … Read more

Turere Ridge and Turere Stream (aka last club trip before lockdown)

Turere Stream

Matt had put a huge amount of work into organizing bushcraft but unfortunately the uncertainty with the rapidly changing Covid-19 situation meant the planned course could not go ahead.  Instead Matt proposed a day trip of navigation, route finding and river travel in the Remutaka Forest Park. Eight of us set off from the Catchpool … Read more